Tuning Relationships with Music:

A Program for Parents and Teens

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What is Tuning In To Kids?

Tuning in to Kids is an evidence-based parenting program that focuses on the emotional connection between parents and children. In particular the program teaches parents skills in emotion coaching, which is to recognise, understand and respond to children’s emotions in an accepting, supportive way. This approach helps the child to understand and manage their emotions.

Tuning in to Kids was developed by Dr Sophie Havighurst and Ann Harley in Melbourne, Australia, and has been evaluated in multiple randomised controlled trials that have shown the program leads to positive outcomes including improving parenting, parent-child relationships and children’s emotional competence and behaviour. The program has been particularly effective with children with clinical-level emotional and behavioural difficulties.

The Tuning in to Kids parenting program is available throughout Australia and a number of other countries.

Program Variants

A number of variations of the program have been developed and evaluated by members of the research team and collaborators. These include Tuning in to TeensTM, Dads Tuning in to KidsTM, and Tuning in to ToddlersTM.

Tuning in to TeensTMis a modification of the Tuning in to Kids program for parents of adolescents. The program provides parents with a greater understanding of their teen’s emotional experiences while teaching specific skills that can assist in being supportive, empathic and staying connected with the young person. The program has been evaluated in a randomised controlled trial of the program with parents of pre-adolescents and is currently being evaluated with parents of secondary school aged children and with carers of adolescents in out-of-home care.

Dads Tuning in to KidsTM is a modification of the Tuning in to Kids program intended specifically for fathers. It includes some additional content of particular relevance to fathers, while still focusing on the core skills of emotion coaching and building a strong father-child connection. This version of the program has been successfully piloted, and a randomised controlled trial with fathers of pre-school children is nearing completion. The program will be released in 2015.

Tuning in to ToddlersTMhas been pilot tested and a randomised controlled trials are currently underway. The program will not be released until this trial is complete.

Parents - Get Involved!

There are many providers of Tuning in to Kids and Tuning in to Teens parenting groups, located all around Australia. Many of these groups' Tuning in to Kids and Tuning in to Teens programs are listed on our Parents Calendar which you can access on this website. If you can't find a session near enough to you, please ask us for contact details for providers in your area.